Xiaomi Mi4 poses for new pictures; is the back plate plastic or metal? (It's plastic!)

Freshly leaked pictures of the Xiaomi Mi4, just days away from its July 22nd introduction, still do not end a mini-controversy about this upcoming flagship device. A sentence about the new handset, written in Chinese on Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun's Weibo account, was translated and apparently says something along the lines of, "The journey of a piece of steel metal." That would seem to indicate that the phone will be made of metal. There is speculation that the phone will feature a metal rear plate.

The pictures that leaked out on Sunday of the Xiaomi Mi4, do not answer the question about what material was used on the phone's rear panel. The back of the phone appears to be made of metal, but is actually made of plastic, according to those who have handled the device. This is similar to the rear panel of the LG G3, which looks like brushed metal, but is made from plastic.

While recent specs call for a 5.5 inch screen, there are rumors that the Xiaomi Mi4 actually has a 5 inch screen with resolution of 1440 x 2560. A quad-core Snapdragon 801 is believed to be under the hood, with 3GB of RAM inside. 16GB of native storage is said to be on board. Back and front-facing cameras are expected to weigh in at 13MP and 5MP respectively, and a 3000mAh cell is rumored to power up the device.

The Xiaomi Mi4 has all of the specs that you would expect from a flagship model. We should learn what Xiaomi has in mind about pricing and availability on Tuesday, when the device is unwrapped by the manufacturer.

UPDATE: The answer to the question in the headline has been answered by Xiaomi VP Li Wanqiang. Li says that the back cover is not metal, but there is plenty of metal used on the device. He says, "The new product is indeed uses a lot of metal, but no for the purpose of metal back cover." The executive did promise that because it is the fourth anniversary of Xiaomi, the Xiaomi Mi4 will not let you down.

What is this obsession with metal? Newsflash, most people don't care. Fact, #1 selling premium android phone in the world is plastic. #1 premium phablet phone is plastic. Even, iphones are made mostly out of glass. (By the way, the cheapest car in America, Nissan Versa, is made out of metal.)

The HTC One has issues with signal dropping out? I have mine for more than a year and it has pretty good reception, on par or better than many other phones. I didn't experience one single drop out with it...

Aluminum is the worst material for smartphones EVER? See how the backs of the M8 and iP5 is cut , but NOT WHOLE tin can.
How could you expect this Xiaomi Mi4 on the picture to be whole aluminium , and to work , at the same time?
ROTFL

Xiao Mi phone stock are sold out in term of second. They sell directly to their customer via their online site. I did not manage to buy it the first round because I took 2 minutes to complete my purchase. My recent attempt is 30 second record time. Redmi Note is sold out in 42 seconds.

How could you expect this Xiaomi Mi4 on the picture to be whole aluminium back , and to work , at the same time, you ignorant?
ROTFL(check out how they cut M8 and iP5 backs , because aluminium doesn't work for smartphones)

*when they take up the NORMALLY free screen space, if they were to extend the screen down where the buttons would NORMALLY exist, I would love them as well, currently however, there isnt a SINGLE PHONE/TABLET that does this**!!

Actually ,soft keys are fat better than physical. I know they take place but that depends of the manufacturer. Look at the OnePlus One for the exemple.
Softkeys can be heavily modified with custom roms. you can have 3 4 or whatever buttons. And set them double function with longpress. You can also have the navigation ring. So yes softkeys are better when you use custom rom

would love to try this on T-mobile. I would pick this phone over the iphone 5 s or c any day of the week. At least companies like them are trying their hardest and not going all out like champions unlike Apple who made phones that can't keep up with the current trends. Apple are like peasants.

I don't understand why people want a metal cover, on a phone if it has an INTERNAL antenna. Yeah, if you had one of the phones back in the 90's that had the little nub sticking out of the case, or, one of the star-tac phones (I did and went through a lot of broken antennas), I could see the "coolness" of having a shiny metal back cover, but, since the antenna on a modern phone, is nothing more than a few micro layers of metal, or in the recent patient lawsuit of one that is "painted" on by a laser onto plastic by way of activating a new kind of chemical, you don't want metal anywhere near the antenna. RF signals have to go through that metal, to get to the antenna. At the microwave bands, it's possible some signal will not resonate properly through that metal, and it's still possible to get some harmonics bouncing around. If you were to take a phone, run a signal strength on it, then pop off the plastic back cover, for a metal one, you'd find signal degradation of a few db. That could mean the difference in a signal in the fringe area, and no signal in a fringe area. As hyper as people are today about "no bars" on their device, why would you want to. Plus, that metal cover is going to radiate heat, keeping it warmer, and, will reduce battery life. How? The stronger the signal on a cell phone, the LESS output power the transmitter emits to keep locked onto the tower. Weaker signals mean higher output, which means less battery. Plus, most phones I see today, are covered in a case, so why double the amount of heat trapped by having a metal case, surrounded by a layer of plastic, rubber, or both?

Even if it's metal or has a 1440p screen. I will still never fall for a phone from a Chinese brand like OnePlus, Mi (Xiaomi), or OPPO. I will loose my favorite features like an IR Blaster, Dual Front Speakers, Laser AutoFocus, and much more.

How could you expect this Xiaomi Mi4 on the picture to be whole aluminium back , and to work , at the same time,
The cheap aluminium tin can is THE WORST MATERIAL EVER, for smartphones. That's why M8 and iP5 MUST cut the back.

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